One year later, we are finally settled in! A lot has happened this past year: adjusting to a new household, new routine, and new commute, hosting our first holidays in the house, beginning our first home renovation project, and GOT MARRIED!
We have many new blog posts coming your way; writing about our stories and maintaining the website has become a nice safe haven for us from the current world lately; but before we get into all that, let's celebrate our first year as homeowners!
After all this time, we finally unpacked all our boxes (thanks to quarantine). Over this time, we have learned what works, which allowed us to use this extra time to purge and donate things we no longer need or have any use for. To keep ourselves occupied, we make sure to have a checklist each week we aim to complete, get to work, and continue to make progress!
For the most part, we are very happy with how the guest room is coming along! The room is not finished but it has been nice to have a sort of presentable room for visiting relatives to stay over. We have some additional ideas to tie together this room but in due time.
Joe was super eager to get things rolling with the home office. Right before the fall season ended, we took a trip to Ikea and designed our own dual desk. Over the next couple of months and the past couple of weeks, we cracked down and really turned the home office into a functional one. We are really happy with the outcome of this space.
We've also moved some things around in the living room and dining room. Aligned the furniture to flow more organically, making the layout more appealing to the eye. We also discovered the enjoyment of decorating these rooms for holidays and even hosting holidays in this space.
One of my favorite memories from this past year was our first official holiday dinner. We had the honor and privilege to host Thanksgiving at our house! Gathering with my family, we all enjoyed a delicious dinner, with plenty of safe food allergy-friendly dishes, and Joe even made his first turkey thanks to Bon Appetit's Perfect Thanksgiving Turkey recipe!
We also unpacked some prints and photos that were just sitting inside boxes. It's nice to display these things in a new way and rediscover some favorite pieces that have been hidden for a while.
We have also been doing a lot of work in the yard...A LOT of work! We enjoyed last summer gardening and hosting BBQs, but we know the space was not ideally how we wanted it. We spent the winter saving up and budgeting so we could redo the backyard, creating the perfect outdoor oasis for ourselves.
That’s kind of how we spent the weekends before Monday would roll back around and bring us back to work. It's always nice to spend time at home and melt into our projects, which is exactly what we have been doing with all this extra time at home now. Everything we accomplish just feels so refreshing and worthwhile!
Hope everyone had a nice weekend!
Hugs & Cookies,
Amanda and Joe
Wedding Photos by Unforgettable Expression
